Accompanying the launch of the first wave of laptops equipped with the Snapdragon X Elite chip this week, consumers finally got their hands on the much-hyped “AI PC” that has been heavily promoted since late last year. Initial reviews and market feedback, however, suggest that Qualcomm’s attempt to disrupt Apple in the ARM-based laptop arena hasn’t received the anticipated applause.
By the closing bell on Thursday, Qualcomm’s stock plummeted over 5%, nearly erasing all gains made earlier in the week amid internal negatives and a lackluster performance in the chip sector overall. Over the past year, Qualcomm had seen its stock price double, propelled by the hype surrounding its “AI PC” concept.
Samsung’s Galaxy Book4 Edge, featuring the Snapdragon X Elite chip, officially hit the shelves on Tuesday, but Samsung quickly issued a statement noting several mainstream software incompatibilities, including low-demand games like “League of Legends,” as well as heavyweights such as “Fortnite” and “EA FC Online.”
While users buying these laptops typically have lower gaming demands, the inclusion of Adobe’s suite of design software and local banking antivirus systems on the incompatible list may deter potential customers. Samsung has requested software developers to adapt, but it remains unclear whether this issue lies with the developers or Windows 11 ARM’s compatibility.
Undoubtedly, software adaptation issues can be patched by programmers, but the hardware reviews suggest that criticisms aimed at Qualcomm are more about filling gaps intentionally omitted in their presentation slides.
Given Qualcomm’s attempts during presentations to showcase the Snapdragon X Elite chip’s superiority over Apple, investors also scrutinized their benchmark comparisons.
Geekbench data showed the Microsoft Surface Pro 11 with Snapdragon X Elite achieving a single-core score of 2837 and a multi-core score of 14,000. In comparison, Apple’s entry-level M3 MacBook Air surpasses 3000 in single-core performance and averages close to 12,000 in multi-core scores. Despite Snapdragon X Elite’s 12 cores compared to M3’s 8, the multi-core performance was only 20% lower.
Considering most users don’t fully utilize all cores in daily tasks, both camps’ laptops were reviewed as “smooth” to use, though Apple’s M3-powered laptops may feel slightly faster in operation.
Energy consumption tests for another AI PC showed the Snapdragon chip consuming 14W during single-threaded tasks, compared to M3’s 10W. Notably, Snapdragon X Elite comes in various versions, and the X1E-78-100 used for testing is the lowest-frequency version without dual-core acceleration; other versions may show different power consumption.
With benchmark scores released, the market suddenly understood Apple’s decision last month to debut the M4 chip inexplicably during an iPad event.
The 10-core chip in the new iPad Pro achieved single-core scores exceeding 3700 and multi-core scores reaching 14,500, surpassing the Snapdragon X Elite. The market generally expects Mac laptops with the M4 chip to launch later this year.
Fairly, Qualcomm’s latest AI PC generation evidently falls short of grand slogans like “surpassing Apple,” but it doesn’t diminish the Snapdragon X Elite’s significant milestone. Its introduction notably challenges Apple’s dominance in the “performance + battery life” laptop segment. For consumers, this translates into more choices and a vigorous cycle of upgrades from major manufacturers.
